Education-service partnership to promote best practices in a latent tuberculosis infection program

The education-service partnership described addresses the challenges presented to local health departments and public health nurses in completing required latent tuberculosis (LTBI) follow-up in population groups. A service learning partnership between the local health department and a Midwestern university school of nursing resulted in the development of an LTBI follow-up program that completed contacts with 193 subjects. Populations served by the program included immigrants to the community and workers from several occupational settings. Outcome data from the project included recommendations for the management of the information database for local health department LTBI follow-up. Nursing students gained an appreciation for the complexities involved in TB surveillance, and improved their cultural competence in the interface with Latino, African, and East European immigrant populations. Students gained first-hand experience with the current health care system, which resulted in communication challenges between health care providers and economic barriers in compliance with the CDC protocol for LTBI follow-up. The program demonstrated a successful partnership between service and education with positive results for the LTBI clients and the local health department nurses.